Throughout my high school years, I was a member of the Quality Paperback Book Club, an outfit that offered big, thick trade paperbacks, often exclusively, under the same rough model as the more famous Book of the Month Club. Part … Continue reading My Writers: Margaret Atwood
My friend Steve recently tagged me on Facebook, challenging me to come up with a list of “fifteen authors who have been an influence and you’re confident will always stick with you.” It was intended to be a brisk, modest exercise. The instructions even insisted that as little time as possible be used in the construction of the list. So naturally, I thought about it a lot. I didn’t agonize in the selection of the fifteen writers; I dutifully followed the instructions in that respect. But I did think about the list quite a bit after I shared it with … Continue reading My Writers: An Introduction
34. Mogwai, Rock Action The Scottish band Mogwai is named after the critters in Joe Dante’s 1984 dark comedy Gremlins. It was intended to be a temporary name, but the band never switched it and it eventually took hold. Certainly, they were locked into it by the time their third album, Rock Action, was released. Mogwai had a reputation for ethereal, meditative music, largely delivered as instrumentals, although Rock Action featured guest vocals by the likes of Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals (singing in Welsh, no less) and David Pajo of Slint. Further demonstrating their fascination with bygone pop … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 34 and 33
This week for Spectrum Culture, I reviewed a new film that fell into the category of earnest attempts sadly lacking in real chops in the execution. This is the sort of offering that I suspect plays like gangbusters at the smaller festivals on the circuit. I also contributed a short piece for our weekly List Inconsequential feature, because I simply will not pass up a chance to write about “Rowdy” Roddy Piper’s finest film performance. Sorry, friends, but his turn for director John Carpenter ranks second in my book. Continue reading Spectrum Check
Admittedly, I’ve sort of got beer on the brain these days, something that’s hard to avoid in my neck of the nation. But I swear there are other things my mind wanders to during the day. Like fabulously messy songs about drinking beer at unlikely hours of the day. While I’m anticipated that our household will drink more than its fair share of beer over the course of the next several days, I don’t think we’ll be resorting to beer for breakfast anytime soon, even though we have a couple remaining bottles of an especially suitable choice for that activity … Continue reading One for Friday: The Replacements, “Beer for Breakfast”
I live in Asheville, North Carolina. For the fourth straight year, Asheville has shared or won outright the title of Beer City USA for four years running, which makes an awful lot of sense considering there are a multitude of first–rate craft breweries within a fifteen minute drive of our front door. Besides the homegrown brewers, within the past few months it’s been announced that New Belgium, Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues have all announced that they’ll be opening new facilities in the area to handle their respective East coast operations. With all that activity, and the accompanying growing suspicion … Continue reading Na na na na na na sorrow, everything’s gonna be all right
#33 — Shampoo (Hal Ashby, 1975) There are so many different that a film can surprise, and I’ll freely and fully admit that I ultimately prefer the shrewder, more low-key surprises to the trickster gotchas designed to upend everything that … Continue reading Top Fifty Films of the 70s — Number Thirty-Three
These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. I think it’s fair to type that the Champs are known for one song: “Tequila.” That song was originally issued as the B-side to “Train to Nowhere,” a single released on Challenge Records, the label started up in part by Gene Autry. The song was recorded in late December of 1957 and released less than a month later. Once DJs flipped the record … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Limbo Rock”
#10 — Marisa Tomei as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny (Jonathan Lynn, 1992) Marisa Tomei’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar win for My Cousin Vinny was so surprising and contrary to the typically stuffy Academy voting trends that a fairly mean-spirited myth built up around it. As per Academy custom, the previous year’s Best Supporting Actor winner was invited to present the award, which meant 74-year-old Jack Palance took the stage, looking far less hale than he did a year earlier when he famously treated the audience to a few one-armed push-ups. He fumbled with the names of individual … Continue reading Greatish Performances #10
36. Old 97’s, Satellite Rides Last week I noted that Oh, Inverted World by the Shins was the first album in purchased in my new state of residence in the summer of 2001. Pleasantly enough, this week on the countdown … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 50 Albums of 2001, 36 and 35
Coffee for Two 